The contest was in marked contrast to the direct appointment of Santiago Calatrava for Calgary's other new iconic footbridge. It was open to any interested participants, there was plenty of public involvement, and the process for selection of a winner was relatively transparent. Given the criticism that Calatrava's appointment drew, no doubt CMLC are happy that Halsall, a Canadian firm with an office in Calgary, were part of the winning team (I predicted at the outset of this contest that two of the three shortlisted firms would feature locals, pretty much correctly).

The RFR design was the one I tilted towards out of the three finalists, and it's gratifying to see an honest, engineering-led but architecturally-refined design turn out the winner. The design has seen considerable modification since the initial entries, but it has retained its simplicity and delicacy throughout.

The foundations look slim, indeed. I don't have all RFR's images to hand so it's hard to comment further right now.

As for the contest's goals, I think these were never very clear to begin with - I'm sure they never used the word "exciting", or "innovative", or "iconic", or any of the other things that many competitors seemed to imagine were required!